Okay, so let’s talk about this whole ‘toddlering’ thing. It’s not just about them learning to walk, right? It’s like navigating a tiny, unpredictable human hurricane every single day. My own journey with this started, well, the moment my little one really started having opinions.
The Morning Battleground
Getting dressed. Sounds simple. It is absolutely not simple. For weeks, mornings were pure chaos. I’d lay out the clothes the night before, thinking I was being smart. Ha! That was just wishful thinking.
Here’s how it usually went down:
- Step 1: Wake the toddler. Sometimes cheerful, sometimes grumpy. Total lottery.
- Step 2: Suggest getting dressed. This was often met with a firm “NO!” or just running away naked.
- Step 3: The Chase. Yep, chasing a giggling, naked toddler around the bedroom. Felt ridiculous.
- Step 4: Negotiation. “Okay, how about just the pants? Please? We need pants to go outside.” Sometimes this worked for one item.
- Step 5: Distraction. Tried singing songs, making funny faces, letting them hold a toy. Hit or miss, mostly miss.
- Step 6: The Forced Dressing. Sometimes, you just gotta gently but firmly get those clothes on while they wiggle and protest. Not fun for anyone.
I remember one morning particularly vividly. We were already running late. I had the socks in my hand. My kid looked at the socks, looked at me, and then threw their favorite teddy bear straight at my head. Zero warning. Pure toddler rage over socks. I just stood there for a second, teddy on the floor, thinking, “Is this my life now?”
Finding Some Sort of Rhythm
It wasn’t like a magic switch flipped, but things slowly got… less chaotic. What eventually kind of worked for us was giving choices. Not “Do you want to get dressed?” because the answer was always no. More like, “Do you want the blue shirt or the red shirt?”
Holding up two options seemed to give my little one a sense of control. Sometimes. Other times, they’d still say “NO!” or point to something completely different. But it reduced the outright battles maybe 50% of the time, which felt like a massive win.
I also started turning it into a game. “Can you put your arm through the hole? Wow! You did it!” Lots of exaggerated praise. Seemed silly to me, but hey, toddlers dig that stuff.
It’s still not perfect. Some mornings are smooth, others feel like wrestling an octopus. But I learned you just gotta keep trying different things. Patience helps, though sometimes mine wears thin. Coffee helps more. You just roll with it, figure out what works today, because tomorrow it might be totally different. That’s toddlering for you, I guess. Always keeping you on your toes.
